On August 6, 1918, in the midst of the global influenza epidemic and three months before the end of World War I, Herbert Rosenfield was born at home in Far Rockaway, New York. He was the third of four children of Bertha Fischman Rosenfield and Abner Benjamin Rosenfield (his siblings, Myron Rosenfield, Ruth Geffen, and Joan Marks Vogel).
Bertha was the elder daughter of the distinguished philanthropist and couturier manufacturer William and Pauline Levy Fischman. Abner was the oldest son of scholar and textile executive Solomon and Leah Robinson Fischman.
Herbert married his beloved wife Audrey Priest Rosenfield on July 30, 1947, just a few months after they met at dinner at the Hotel Pierre Executive Club. A lifelong New Yorker, he was an award-winning 1936 graduate of the high school of commerce. He then joined the family textile firm, Continental Converters Corporation, and became president in 1955.
He proudly enlisted in the United States Army in October 1940 and volunteered to serve until after the end of World War II. As Warrant Officer, he served as Assistant Adjutant to the Commanding Officer of the 212 Coast Guard Artillery Anti-Aircraft and then Adjutant to the Commanding Officer of the 541st Field Artillery European Theater, first based in London and then seeing action in France and Germany.
In New York City, Herbert contributed to improving the quality of life for all his communities by pursuing his passion for community service; he served regularly on the Grand Jury of the County of New York. As founder and president of the Chambers-Canal Civic Association, he and his colleagues supported small businesses and fought for better residential conditions. He helped to organize the lobbying changes to the loft laws so that artists could live and work in the same place. Appointed to Community Board #1 in 1979, Herb was reappointed every year until shortly before his passing.
In 1984, Herbert received the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Small Business Council Second Annual Small Business Award for outstanding contributions to community volunteer activities. In his cherished Gramercy Park neighborhood, where he lived for more than 60 years, he organized ‘Come ‘n Clean’ in the 1960s, one of the earliest community environmental campaigns in New York City. This event continues in a similar form to this day.
Herbert was devoted to Beekman Infirmary-New York Downtown Hospital, now New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital. He served as longtime chair of its Community Advisory Board. He helped establish the Kress Eye Program at the hospital. In 1989, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees and served as life trustee at the time of his death. In 1995, Herbert received the United Hospital Fund Distinguished Service Award for his trusteeship.
After the loss of his wife, he established the Audrey Priest Rosenfield Award to support the member of the nursing staff who showed the most engagement in community service. In 2015, he received a special citation from the hospital for his years of dedicated work.
Herbert also cared greatly about the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). A founding member of the BMCC Fund, he served as a director until his death.
In 1987, he established the Abner B. Rosenfield Leadership Award to recognize the student who best combines excellent scholarship with devotion to community service. The award is now part of the Abner B. Rosenfield Scholarship Fund. In 1984, Herb received the Distinguished Service Award from the College and later recognition in 2015. Learn More
For decades he was a member of the City Athletic Club, the Merchants Club, and the National Arts Club. He had a lifelong passion for photography, farming, model trains, and cars. His ardor for farming became a reality when in 1975 he bought and restored ‘Fieldrose Farm’ in Frenchtown, New Jersey. He made it into a working farm, replete with a menagerie of miniature horses, carriage ponies, pygmy goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, ducks, chickens, and a rooster, to name a few. In 2011, he donated the land to farmland preservation in New Jersey, joining his neighbors in ensuring that that part of New Jersey remains open space dedicated to farming and farmers.
Herbert took great comfort from his religious and spiritual values. For nearly 70 years, he was an active member of Congregation Emanuel of New York City. He instilled in his family the values of service and philanthropy. His children and grandchildren – Patricia and her daughter Victoria; Thomas and his daughters Danielle, Jessica, and Vanessa, and his sons, Hugo and Leo; and Nelson and his wife Ruth and their daughters Elaine and Julie – honor his devotion to those family precepts and traditions.
Herbert’s keen wit, foresight, and dedication to service, family, and friends defined his life.
For more details, see also,
The Herbert and Audrey Rosenfield Fund
Herbert Rosenfield: Founding Member of the BMCC Foundation Board of Directors Passes Away
